More Coptica at the British Museum

I tried searching their new database for “codex”. The results were interesting. You have to get past some tosh about Mexican materials first.

Here is a parchment sheet from a codex, with two columns of Coptic on either side. It is largely complete, and should certainly be readable to those with the language skills (are you listening, Alin Suciu?)

Then there are several leaves, which look to me as if they all come from one codex, here, here, here and here and here.

Papyrus codex leaf bearing Sahidic script on recto and verso. The text contains a narration of miracles attributed to Shenoute.

Interestingly the first one does NOT appear if you tick “images”.

I then did a search on Syriac. This did not bring up such interesting items for primary research, but did provide a bust of William Cureton!

Revd William Cureton, Assistant Keeper of Oriental Manuscripts at the British Library

Cureton was in charge of the oriental manuscripts when the manuscripts from the Nitrian desert arrived. It is melancholy to record that he promptly allocated the publication of those he thought most interesting to himself, thereby forcing scholars to wait 15 years to access them. I doubt his modern successors at the British Library would do differently, sadly.